As some congressional Republicans face pushback over their proposed budget cuts at town halls in their districts, a new poll finds Americans split in their views of how to best manage the federal deficit, with near-equal numbers supporting President Barack Obama’s plan and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s blueprint.

Forty-four percent of Americans surveyed for a Gallup/USA Today poll released Wednesday said they think the plan for deficit reduction put forward by Obama offers the better long-term strategy. The Republican plan offered earlier this month by Ryan gets the support of 43 percent of those surveyed, while 14 percent said they have no opinion.

Support for Obama’s plan has flagged a bit since earlier this month, when a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey found 48 percent of Americans favoring Obama’s approach to the federal budget, while 43 percent said they preferred the Republican approach. But that poll was conducted and released before Obama’s April 13 speech detailing his vision, in which he offered a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes and was unsparing in his critique of Ryan’s plan.

Support for Obama’s plan is most widespread among adults age 18 to 29, with 53 percent backing his vision, while 30 percent back Ryan’s. The age group that is most strongly in favor of Ryan’s plan are adults over the age of 65, with 48 percent supporting his plan, while 42 percent support Obama’s.

That the Ryan plan does better with seniors is a bit unexpected, since analysts see the Republican vision for deep cuts to Medicare as likely to benefit Obama, who has traditionally struggled to gain the support of older Americans. Overall, 66 percent of those surveyed said they worry that Ryan’s plan cuts Medicare too much and 65 percent say the same about his vision for trimming Social Security spending.

Americans are most worried that the Democratic plan does not go far enough to reduce the deficit, with 71 percent of those surveyed saying so. A further 62 percent say they worry the deficit will be used as an excuse to raise taxes.

The poll surveyed 1,013 adults April 20-23. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.